My name is Tomer London, and I’m the chief product officer and co-founder at Gusto. These last few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic have been earth-shattering to say the least. Small businesses across the country have been forced to shut down for public safety, and they’re struggling to survive and make payroll. On top of this, they’re trying to navigate frequent changes in public policy while also figuring out how to apply for loans and grants announced by federal and state governments. 

At Gusto, we’ve been working remotely since March 12 and are focusing entirely on helping small businesses survive the crisis. We know small businesses need help taking care of their teams now more than ever, that accountants are relying on Gusto for support more than ever, and that employers need to navigate tricky, complex employment issues now more than ever. In the past three weeks, we’ve shipped over 10 COVID-related product features from supporting new emergency paid leave laws, to accessing federal tax credits, to a dedicated Small Business COVID-19 resource hub (see more below). Over the next few months, we will continue pushing out new features in response to this crisis and its resulting economic impact, and help our customers in any way we can.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen our team come together with a laser focus on serving our customers through this crisis. This common mission has been healthy for us as humans too — giving us purpose, grounding us, and helping us rise about the daily uncertainties of living in quarantine. It’s been incredible to see Gusties move at lightning speed, working tirelessly to interpret legislation in near real-time, and implement capabilities for our customers in a matter of hours or days.

Highlights of what we’ve shipped in the last three weeks

COVID-19 Resource Hub

We’ve created a free COVID-19 resource hub to help small businesses get the most updated information, analysis, and advice about regulations, the rapidly-changing economy, and best practices. Tens of thousands of visits each day tell us our information is useful to small businesses.

A screenshot of our Covid-19 Resource Hub

New COVID-19 Tab Inside the App

We are also supporting our Customers with a new COVID-19 tab inside the Gusto app that’s updated daily with new features, content, and relevant news.

Daily updates and resources for customers in our app

Help Getting Federal Funding & Tax Credits

We have built several capabilities that help put money in the hands of small businesses when they need it the most.

(1) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Payroll Report

The Paycheck Protection Program, which is part of the CARES Act, is intended to ensure the survival of small businesses by making loans and conditional grants quickly available to them. We shipped special PPP payroll reports so customers have what they need to quickly apply for a PPP loan. We’re auto-calculating grant amounts using the historical payroll data in our system and providing a one-click report query with the data required for application filing. All Gusto customers can now also find a draft of Form 941 — another requirement for a PPP loan — under “Documents” in their Gusto accounts.

Our in-app page dedicated to the Paycheck Protection Program
Customers can generate a report with one-click to gather the data required for applying to the Paycheck Protection Program.

(2) Support for Employer Tax Deferrals

We now support CA and WA Employer tax deferrals, which allows employers to defer their tax filings and payments in CA and WA for 60 days. This helps employers manage their cash flow and stay in business.

In app support for Employer Tax Deferrals

(3) Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Family and Medical Leave

We now support two types of paid leave covered by the federal government as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) passed on March 18: 

  1. Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL)
  2. Emergency Family & Medical Leave (FMLA). 

Gusto allows employers to pay employees for EPSL and FMLA when they run payroll and receive a real-time tax credit. It’s critical that small business employees don’t have to choose between income and health safety, and we hope we’re helping to make this an easy choice.

Pay employees for EPSL and FMLA in Gusto and receive a real-time tax credit.

Thanks for Reading and Thank You to Our Customers

The most important outcome of all of this is seeing the impact on our customers. Thank you for choosing us and we hope we’re able to help.

Lastly, I want to share a thank-you note I sent our Product, Engineering, and Design teams at the end of a very long week on Friday 3/13. 

Thanks for reading. I hope you, your family, and your friends are safe and well. It’ll be okay and we’ll get through this together.

Tomer

Tomer London Tomer is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto. He is responsible for the development and execution of the product vision — reimagining how modern payroll, benefits, and compliance should operate.

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